Fast Warp - Club Info

Club Info

For our next meeting, see the Club Events page.

About the Club

Fast Warp exists to promote gaming and the fantasy, science fiction, and related genre within the Rice University Community, to include students, faculty, staff and local gamers in the Houston area.

It's a recreational club, so the focus is on providing opportunities to play games, watch movies, discuss books, and have fun doing the like. In general, the gaming has usually been a bigger focus only because it seems easier to get people together to play a game.

As far as games go, we have a wide variety of games that we are interested in playing, such as board and card games, role-playing games, live action role playing, and miniatures games. Board and card games include Diplomacy, Risk, Axis & Allies, Settlers of Cataan, Cosmic Encounters, Magic, and generally any board and/or card game you care to play. Role playing games include Dungeons & Dragons, GURPS, Star Wars, Vampire, Werewolf, and others. Our primary live action role playing occurs as part of ricegame, which runs World of Darkness LARPs (Vampire, Werewolf, etc.). Our typical miniatures games include Warhammer 40k, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Mordheim, Mage Knight, and we're even reviving historical miniatures activities; we have a subgroup called Fast Warp Minis. Usually, the only requirement is that the games be social and fun.

Movies seem to be our second most popular activity and will generally consist of fantasy, science-fiction, and action movies.

In fall, we have been taking annual trips out the Renaissance Fair here in Houston.

Books are an interest that waxes and wanes. If you would like to get a reading group together, then by all means come talk to us!

We welcome spectators at any time, so even if you're just curious, feel free to come on down and check us out!

What's in a Name?

FAST stands for "Fantasy," "Science-fiction," and, for the "T", take your pick:

  1. You're not cleared for that! Thanks go to Steve Jackson Games' IOU for that bit of inspiration and thanks to Andrew Harper for the suggestion to blatantly rip them off pay homage to their creative genius.
  2. T is for Tachyons, because tachyons make everything better (just ask the crews of the FSS Enterprise).

In spite of the acronym, our club enjoys the Horror, Action, Cult, and Anime genre as well, although anime is skillfully and lovingly taken care of by another club, Jo Mai Anime.

WARP stands for "Wargaming and Role Playing". We engage in a far wider variety of gaming, to include board games, card games, live action role playing (LARPs), miniatures, wargames, and good old fashioned tabletop role playing. WARP was the name of the original club established on or before 1980, and originally stood for "Wargamers and Role Players"

The FSF interests of our group have splintered and rejoined a few times in the past few decades. Known as the RSFFAS, Rice Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Anime Society, they joined WARP at some point. WARP actually died for about a year and was picked up by The Alliance, which also shared a joint focus of FSF and gaming. Because of the Rice Alliance and Rice Design Alliance, that name became very problematic and was dropped in favor of the current one. Along the way, we lost an "A" for our acronym needs as anime went off and formed its own club - Jo Mai Anime.

Which brings us to today and the Fast Warp.

2005 - 2006 Officers

Office Name rice.edu userid
President Matt Drwenski drwenski
Vice President Nick Eckenstein geaelith
Treasurer David Newell beta
Secretary Bobby Anderson thatdarnedob
OwlCon Coordinator Laura Gibson roisin

What do our officers do? (some specific details)

  • President - schedule gamedays, events, meetings. Although all officers should consider themselves ambassadors of the club, the President is usually the defacto "face" of the club and often handles liaison tasks. Make sure things get done. You are also the primary voice of Fast Warp, and as such are the primary owner of the mailing lists.
  • Vice President - Help the President or any officer that needs it, really. This job tends to be very dynamic.
  • Treasurer - Take care of the funds of the club, to include acquiring/replacing equipment from the club locker.
  • Secretary - Communications officer may be a better title. Ideally, you are responsible for minutes of meetings, reports on events, making/posting flyers, maintenance of the club's mailing lists and e-mail account.
  • OwlCon Coordinator - Make sure OwlCon happens and that it has the resources it needs.
  • Shared duties
    • Duties and responsibilities are not written in stone. Officers should share the workload as befits their schedules and needs.
    • Events - Thinking up and executing events is always a shared task.
    • Sodas and chips - Provide affordable sodas and chips at the gamedays. This typically involves filling a cooler with ice and loading it with sodas, as well as buying the large variety packs of chips. The Treasurer should also arrange for a cashbox to be available.
    • Web page - The web page is handled by the best suited to the task; it can be shared or handled by multiple people (provided they have good communication). The club provides a copy of Dreamweaver to whoever takes charge of the web page, which is passed on to the next webmaster (i.e. no pirating).

Policies

Gaming Mailing List - The President is the primary owner. The other Warp officers and the faculty advisor concerned with Warp affairs are quiet owners. This provides a contingnecy for emergency backup.

Constitution

Link to Word 200 Document Version (PC)

Last Modified: 04/12/2001

Constitution of FAST WARP

  1. The name of this organization is "FAST WARP."
  2. The purpose of this organization is to promote gaming, fantasy and science fiction activities and interests.
  3. Members of this organization shall be as follows:
    1. Regular Members: All Rice University students or alumni, and their spouses.
    2. Faculty Members: All faculty members and their spouses are eligible.
    3. Associate Members: All other members of the extended Rice University Community and Houston area.
    4. All officers and at least one-half of the members must be Regular Members.
  4. There will exist an Executive Committee. They will consist of the following five positions:
    1. The President, who shall:
      1. Call club meetings;
      2. Oversee meetings and activities as able;
      3. Make sure that at all times the organization abides by the rules and regulations set forth by the Student Association at Rice University;
      4. Act as a representative of the organization when necessary;
      5. Ensure that various trends in Gaming, Science Fiction, and Fantasy are fairly represented according to the interests of the members;
      6. Be empowered to break tie votes;
      7. Recruit a replacement for the office of President as needed.
    2. The Vice-President, who shall:
      1. Oversee meetings in place if the President if the President is unable to do so;
      2. Coordinate club activities and events, such as monthly gamedays.
      3. Identify the need for, arrange, and obtain confirmation for reservation of rooms with the Rice Registrar
      4. Should not be a graduating student so that officers will be available for the following year.
      5. Recruit a replacement for the office of Vice-President as needed.
    3. The Secretary, who shall:
      1. Be responsible for coordinating the creation and distribution of flyers;
      2. Maintain publicity for all facets of the club;
      3. Be responsible for documenting all association paperwork, and maintaining the Listserv;
      4. Maintain the club web sites, to include:
        1. Updated club event listings
        2. Information on video and book libraries
        3. Updated club history
        4. Work towards establishment of a web based infrastructure to facilitate the role of the web site as a gamer clearinghouse.
        5. Recruit a replacement for the office of Secretary as needed.
    4. The Treasurer, who shall:
      1. Maintain a correct balance of the organization's funds;
      2. Keep a record of the income and expenses of the organization;
      3. Collect dues;
      4. Keep track of the checkbook of the organization;
      5. Maintain, store, and ensure the security of gaming, science fiction, and fantasy books;
      6. Identify good acquisitions, and submit requests for them at meetings;
      7. Coordinate availability of the library for club events as needed;
      8. Oversee the web site library list to ensure it is currently up to date;
      9. Recruit a replacement for the office of Treasurer as needed.
    5. OwlCon Coordinator, who:
      1. Will coordinate and execute OwlCon to the best of his/her ability.
        May receive a portion of net profits to defray costs of Con research (i.e. attending other cons).
      2. Be responsible for recruiting club members to help with OwlCon.
    6. Members of the Executive Committee shall be elected by a yearly general election at a general meeting of the club. The pool of candidates shall be composed of volunteers who have been seconded by another club member. Should the need arise; members of the Executive Committee may be impeached by general vote.
    7. Two signatures are required for each check, and they must both be Executive Committee members.
    8. General meetings will be called by the President and announced at least three business days in advance over the club's mailing list.
    9. The Faculty Sponsor shall be selected by a vote of the Executive Committee.
      Amendments to the organization's constitution can only be made by the approval of at least 2/3 of the club members present at a general meeting. A minimum of five members must be in, as well as a majority of club officers.

Administrative Links